George Tooker: Small-town church, big-time artist

Apr. 9, 2011

The late painter George Tooker made a series of religious paintings for St. Francis of Assisi, a Catholic church in Windsor. Tooker, who lived in Hartland, gave the egg tempera paintings to the church. Under the terms of a covenant between Tooker and St. Francis of Assisi, the paintings are to remain in the church.

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George Tooker "Stations of the Cross"

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A Roman Catholic church in Windsor has 21 paintings made by the late artist George Tooker, an important American painter who lived for more than 50 years in Hartland before his death late last month.

The Tooker paintings in the southern Vermont church depict the Seven Sacraments and the Stations of the Cross. They were painted by Tooker in the early 1980s, said the Rev. Rene Butler, pastor of the Windsor church, St. Francis of Assisi.

The original church, built in 1930, burned down at the end of 1977, Butler said. A new church was built in 1980.

Tooker, who converted to Catholicism, was a friend of the Rev. Forrest Rouelle, the pastor who presided over the parish at the time of the fire, Butler said. Rouelle asked Tooker if he would make a painting to be sold through a raffle, to help cover the costs of building a new church, according to Butler.

"George Tooker wasn't comfortable with the idea of raffling off something," Butler said, "so he said, 'I'll paint something for the church.'"

Using egg tempera, Tooker painted seven panels — each one depicting one of the sacraments. The panels, which Butler thinks were painted in 1981, are attached to a single board, which in turn is affixed to the wall, he said.

"Most of the sacraments are pretty clear," Butler said. Any Catholic looking at them will be able to figure them out."

The ambiguous painting is Tooker's rending of the final sacrament, which is the right of ordination. Tooker depicted vocation, or the calling to priesthood, Butler said.

The painting shows two men and a woman - a nun in a blue habit - being called to vocation.

"I always figured she was meant to be the Virgin Mary standing next to the crucifix," Butler said. He learned otherwise in November, 2009 when he heard Tooker answer a question about the painting.

"George was at the local museum and somebody asked him, 'Who is the woman in that painting, in the last panel?'" Butler recalled. "And he said, 'She's a nun.'"

In 1984, Tooker created more artwork for the church. He painted the 14 Stations of the Cross, an interpretation that depicts Jesus's final hours through a series of paintings of hands - mostly the hands of Jesus, but other participants as well, Butler said.

Each year, St. Francis of Assisi renewed a covenant with Tooker that states the paintings will never be removed from the Windsor church, Butler said.

"It was a covenant between the parish and George," Butler said. "I'm writing to Burlington (to the Diocese) to tell them of that arrangement."

The artist is gone. His work will remain at St. Francis of Assisi, the church in Windsor where Friday afternoon Butler presided over Tooker's funeral.